#MontanaTribe Opposes ‘Slap on the Wrist’ Fine for #IllegalMining That Polluted #WaterSource

by Elyse Wild May 26, 2026

"The #FortBelknap Indian Community is opposing a settlement between the state’s Department of Environmental Quality and mining companies that illegally mined on the tribes’ ancestral homeland, harming crucial water sources for the reservation.

"From 2020 to 2022, #BlueArcLLC and #LegacyMiningLLC conducted mining activities at the #ZortmanMine in the #LittleRockyMountains without permits, licenses, or performance bonds, resulting in damage to ongoing environmental reclamation efforts.

"The #ZortmanLanduskyMine opened in 1979 and was operated by #PegasusGoldCorp. until it filed for bankruptcy in 1998. Two decades of mining activities caused widespread surface and #GroundwaterContamination, and in 1999, the DEQ and Bureau of Land Management took over the site. In 2001, Luke Ployhar, owner of Blue Arc LLC, bought the land out of the bankruptcy under the condition that the #DEQ had ongoing access to conduct #reclamation activities.

"The two agencies spent approximately $85 million cleaning up the area, according to the consent order. The site needs #WaterTreatment in perpetuity, meaning the additional cost to #taxpayers could exceed hundreds of millions of dollars.

"The illegal mining activities damaged the continuous #environmental cleanup and caused contaminated water to flow downstream to the #FortBelknapIndianCommunity, polluting its water.

In 2022, the state proposed a $516,567 penalty for Blue Arc LLC and Legacy Mining LLC. On Friday, May 22, the DEQ reached a settlement with the companies for $200,000, to be paid over five years. The agreement does not require an admission of wrongdoing."

Read more:
https://nativenewsonline.net/environment/montana-tribe-opposes-slap-on-the-wrist-fine-for-illegal-mining-that-polluted-water-source/

#USPol #CorporateColonialism #NativeAmericanNews #NativeAmericans #WaterIsLife #SlapOnTheWrist #Montana #MontanaDEQ #DEQFail

💧 Aggressive groundwater and the long memory of contamination

Even after more than a decade of monitoring, the groundwater in this carbonate aquifer remains undersaturated with respect to calcite — consistently showing negative SI values across nearly all observation wells.

This means that the system is still chemically aggressive toward limestone, slowly dissolving the host rock.
The impoundment, operating since 1976, continues to influence the aquifer — with the geometry of possible subsurface voids still uncertain to this day.

📘 All supporting data and modeling results are included in the draft monograph:
🔗 https://zenodo.org/records/16741148

🧪 Data & visualization: PHREEQC + R + QGIS

#Hydrogeochemistry #Geochemistry #MineWater #Groundwater #PHREEQC #EnvironmentalGeoscience #IndependentResearch #OpenScience #QGIS #RStats #Aquifer #Zenodo #SvystunovaGully #GroundwaterContamination #FOSS

🌎 Mapping dominant chemical speciation in a polluted carbonate aquifer

In my recent modeling work, I modeled the dominant forms of element speciation in groundwater within a carbonate system.

Beyond pure geochemical curiosity, this approach provides a practical lens:
– it reveals where mineral precipitation is most probable,
– and helps identify zones where remediation can be most effective.

💻 Combining thermodynamic modeling (PHREEQC) with spatial analysis in R and QGIS turns subsurface processes into actionable insights for water-quality management and contamination mitigation.

Two figures below show the modeled distribution of cadmium species across the aquifer and their evolution with dilution

📘 Full details in the draft monograph:
🔗 https://zenodo.org/records/16741148

#Geochemistry #Hydrogeology #PHREEQC #GroundwaterContamination #MineWater #EnvironmentalGeochemistry #Metasomatism #Aquifer #RStats #QGIS #GeospatialAnalysis #OpenScience #IndependentResearch #WaterQuality #Remediation #SvystunovaGully

🔬 Metasomatic Zonation as a Model of Groundwater Contamination

One of the key theoretical bases in my research is the classical metasomatic zonation model (Korzhinskii, 1960s).

I interpret the contamination halo formed by mine waters not as passive dispersion — but as an active metasomatic system, where aggressive fluids drive alteration and re-precipitation reactions within the carbonate aquifer.

Highly mineralized mine waters create a complex interaction front.
Thermodynamic modeling (based on well-monitoring data) allows identification of several geochemical zones partly analogous to Korzhinskii’s metasomatic sequence.

📊 The image shows my preliminary zoning concept.

📘 All calculations and hypotheses are detailed in the draft monograph:
🔗 https://zenodo.org/records/16741148

#Geochemistry #Hydrogeology #PHREEQC #Metasomatism #MineWater #GroundwaterContamination #GeochemicalModeling #IndependentResearch #OpenScience #RStats #QGIS #EnvironmentalGeochemistry #Thermodynamics #Aquifer #Zenodo #SvystunovaGully

#GroundwaterContamination #Ohio

From AP.com: Officials to test water from Ohio village near Cold War-era weapons plant after newspaper probe

https://apnews.com/article/weapons-plant-groundwater-pollution-ohio-radioactive-d92f8e63b3151a0881ce96a8309e9aca

#IronAir Batteries Are Here. They May Alter the Future of Energy.

Battery tech is now entering the Iron Age.

By Darren Orf
Published: Jan 17, 2023

"Each iron-air battery is about the size of a washer/dryer set and holds 50 iron-air cells, which are then surrounded by an electrolyte (similar to the Duracell in your TV remote). Using a principle called 'reverse rusting,' the cells 'breathe' in air, which transforms the iron into iron oxide (aka rust) and produces energy. To charge it back up, a current reverses the oxidation and turns the cells back into iron.

"NASA first started experimenting with iron-air batteries back in the late 1960s, and it’s obvious why this next-gen storage system has engineers excited. For one, iron-air batteries solve a few of lithium’s biggest shortcomings right off the bat. As their name suggests, these batteries use primarily #iron, the fourth most abundant element on Earth, and ... well ... air. This tech’s adoption could help curtail the large amounts of water used to mine #lithium (not to mention alleviating the potential for #GroundwaterContamination

"Secondly, and most importantly, iron-air batteries would be 10 times cheaper, perform better, and last 17 times longer. Right now, these batteries’ primary task would be to bridge the gap when utilities need more power during peak hours, and as green energy eats up a bigger share of the energy pie, they could also crucially store excess energy on sunny days to shore up supply when the clouds roll in. Lithium-ion only provides approximately four hours of storage, whereas iron-air could deliver up to 100 hours—a full four days to bridge those energy gaps.

"The downsides to iron-air batteries? They’re big and also slow to recharge, which is likely why lithium-ion will remain the battery of choice for electric cars and smartphones. #FormEnergy also says these iron-air batteries will form 'power blocks' where iron-air batteries handle long load times, while lithium-ion batteries take care of spikes in demand."

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/a42532492/iron-air-battery-energy-storage/

#RenewablesNow #IronAirBatteries
#SolarPower #WindPower #EnergyStorage #NoLithiumMining #RecycleLithium #LincolnMaine